Make yourself at home | Creativity Issue 58 | Tutorial

This super soft street of houses by designer Laura Howard was featured in Creativity Magazine Issue 58 and is a simple but effective home décor project, here's how Laura did it...
Steps:
Felt houses
1. For each house, use the templates on page 93 of the magazine or download them from our library. (There's a link to the side of this project)
2. Cut one house and a contrasting roof and door from Craft Planet Acrylic Felt. Cut a white felt shape for each house to use as the back. Hand cut white square or rectangular windows.
2. Using running stitch and thread that co-ordinates with the felt, sew a roof, door and windows to each house.
3. Using half-strand thread to colour match the roof, backstitch the window frames. To find out how to backstitch, follow the photo step by steps below.
4. Add a mini pompom or mini polka dot button as a door handle.
5. Add some greenery! Use the templates again to cut felt bushes, flowers and leaves, or a tree and plant pot, in an assortment of co-ordinating colours.
6. Follow the photo step by step to add decorative stitching. Backstitch along the middle of each leaf and sew the bushes, plant pot and tree with running stitch.
7. Use long single stitches for the flower stalks and several stitches together for the tree trunk. Decorate the plants with pompoms, buttons and embroidery, and embroider star shapes as flowers on the bushes.
8. Embellish the roofs with embroidery, buttons, pompoms or ribbon. Cut ribbon lengths slightly wider than the roof then attach them with whipstitch or running stitch, folding the ends behind to give a neat finish.
9. Use half strands of white embroidery thread and blanket stitch to sew the house fronts to the backs, leaving a gap for stuffing. Follow the photo step by steps to find out how to blanket stitch. Lightly stuff each house with toy stuffing then sew up the gap.

Backstitch:
Sew a stitch. Take the needle back to the previous stitch. Insert the needle, sew under the fabric and bring the thread up through the fabric, in front of the last stitch. Repeat.

Sewing the flowers:
Sew single stitches of embroidery thread radiating from the centre of the felt circle. Add a button or pompom in the centre.

Blanket stitch:
Start the stitch from the back, leaving a loop behind. Tuck the needle into the loop and begin a second stitch. Tighten the loop and continue.